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Hello, my name is Paul. I've pretty much been playing ever since I could reach the keys as a child. I took lessons when I was seven and stopped at twelve, which seemed to be enough time to get the basics down; but more importantly, be bonded with my instrument. Since then I've been teaching myself techniques here and there and have been composing.

I do consider myself to be more of composer than a pianist, but yet I feel it's necessary to progress further in piano techniques to open more doors for my composing. So I've developed this habit of learning only parts rather than the whole pieces. Most of the material I'm learning is from the Romantic era, but my favorite genre is ragtime and other fun (almost carnival?) styles.

With that, the pieces I'm sort of learning are mainly Liszt and Thalberg. I don't play these pieces well, but I suppose I have fun playing them and that's what matters to me most. I can play most of the Grand Galop Chromatique, and I'll play some etudes poorly here and there (La Campanella and Thalberg Etudes specifically). Right now I'm focused on trying to get the majority of Arcadi Volodos' transcription of the Turkish March and also trying to get the last bit of Moise Fantasy by Thalberg because I absolutely am in awe with that three hand effect.

Anyways, I'm mainly here for browsing and looking for anything I can pick up on. Nice to meet you people.

I have played guitar (mainly electric) for about 5 years and picked up piano about a year ago - making slow progress.

I have been attempting the perennial 'Moonlight Sonata', parts of Chopin nocturnes (9 2 (Eb), 55 1(Fm), 72 1(Em)) and somewhat ambitiously Rachmaninov's C#m prelude. I'm more interested in the romantic and baroque periods than classical. On classical guitar I can play one or two Albeniz and Granados pieces.

Pieces I'd like to play include Scriabin Etude 8 11 (Bbm), Rach prelude in Gm and one of Albeniz' Malagueñas. Better get practising.

My name is Dakota.I'm Fifteen, and I've been playing the piano since I was 5 years old. I'm a big fan of music from the Classical and Romantic periods, but I also like the music of Scarlatti, Couperin and Bach.

I am currently working on a couple Etudes from Czerny's School of Velocity, Mozart's Sonata in A minor, and Chopin's Military Polonaise.

Well, let's see. I'm 35 years old and still am excited about playing the piano...I have studied different genres but seem to always come back to the classics over and over again. Especially Beethoven and Bach. I've taken private lessons, played in competitions, given concerts, played in bands and have had just about every kind of performance experience imaginable. (The good, the bad and the ugly) I guess I would consider myself advanced but still have so far to go. I've never completely learned a Beethoven Sonata (all three movements)....and that's always been a dream of mine. Maybe this year? Piano has always been a source of therapy and relaxation for me. I love this forum. It gives me a sense of support and community. There are a few members who I would definitely consider mentors.

Hi everyone,My name is Mark. I'd like to share my thoughts and emotions about the piano. Brief history always been an ear player, no formal training till about 9 months ago. My teacher is 85 yrs. of age so I guess she may be old school. Learning to read was and is the biggest challenge I've ever faced. My instruction material is from the Sherwood Music School Chicago. It was printed in 1929 and consists of studies,exercises, lessons and tests at all levels from prep. A to Adv. B in over 20 different packets. The course back then cost $500.00 Has anyone ever heard of it?To say my nature is usually hyped up and anxious would be correct. I have been able to relax somewhat at the piano. I don't have the feeling of someone slowly driving a needle into the back of my neck.

I have the Shmitt book also for finger independence. As soon as I feel tension in my arm I stop. I'm aware of my posture and sit so that most of my skeletel framework is supporting me and not using my muscles. The amount of downward pressure is amazing to me just to push a key that requires only a few ounces. Some days seem lighter than others. How long before you can move freely and not have these involantary muscle contractions? Also the reading sometimes drives me insane. I try not to look down and get a tactical sense, where my brain knows where my fingers are. Keeping my eyes on the page is another difficulty to say the least.

My last thought, piano and the art, has been on my mind since as long as I can remember. I'm 48 now and chose to work long and hard so that I'm pretty much retired now and can devout my time to piano. Is there a term out there that would describe these symptoms-( If I do fairly well playing, it sets my mood for the day. If I struggle or like when I struggle it puts me in a mood of despair shall we say?) Post Traumatic Piano Stress Disorder ? Thank you in advance to anyone willing to reply. I have many other points of discussion.I live in Glendale RI Be Well! Mark

I started piano lessons at 8 and dropped out at 10 because I wasn't really into it and hated those kiddie pieces. Would have been different if I'd been taught bubblegum rock!

First restart was in pop piano (just enough to play some carols in time for Christmas) in 1997. Second restart was in 2002, but fizzled out in less than a year. I restarted again almost a year ago, but my progress has been slow. I use the Alfred's Adult Beginners' system and am halfway thru book 1 (on my own).

I'm very fortunate to have a very nice instrument - a Steingraeber & Sohne 130 - which is really way too much piano for way too little talent.

My aims - I'd like to be able to just play any melody I can hum and improvise harmony around it - just to entertain myself. But I'm also open to doing formal studies like the ABRSM system we use in Singapore. Just haven't found a teacher I like tho'.

Hi everyone! My name is Joshua Kim, I'm 21 years old and just started playing piano 5 weeks ago. I've loved classical music since I first heard it in 6th grade(that's when we got rid of our tv and bought a huge stereo system) but especially liked the violin and piano. However, I always just enjoyed listening and never really played(learned the basics in 3rd grade but I hated it. only time i spent at the piano was during the hour long lessons once a week). But about 2 years ago, i started having a really strong desire to learn the piano and finally, a month ago, i started learning at a place called woodwind academy in flushing, ny. Since then I've practiced about 60 hours in total. Currently I am working on Mozart Sonata #5, Bach invention #4(both are extremely challenging for me and as i'm learning more about dynamics and finger techniques, just getting harder. But I LOVE IT!!) and am warming up my fingers using a book called Hanon. The piano I have, or keyboard is a dgx-550. uhhhh, my current goal is to get into a well known university as a piano major, preferably in new york, within 7 years. I guess its somewhat a dream? hahahaha. Until then I will work on my Philosophy degree and MDIV degree. I'm hoping by a miracle I get into Manhattan school of Music or Julliard. So if anyone can give me info on these two schools it would be great!! can i even apply to these schools at the age of 28-29? I tried looking it up on their respective sites but found no information on age. Anyways, I'm so happy to have found an active highly populated piano forum!!! Hope I get to know everyone and learn a lot from everyone's piano experience as well!!

Hi, I'm Jess. I'm 18 and I've been playing piano since I was 11. Right now in my lessons I'm learning the grade 8 ABRSM pieces although I probably won't take the exam. Out of lessons I'm mostly playing Bach and Chopin.I play on an old Renn Hounamn upright piano. It's out of tune and some of the keys don't work but I love it to bits (but not so much I'm not saving up for a nice one!)

I'm a new member, I've been reading posts for a few weeks ("lurking" sounds kind of creepy to me). My friends are mostly musicians, but none are classical pianists, so I thought an online forum would be a good chance to talk to other classical pianists.

I own a beautiful Kimball upright. I've been playing about 2 years, and practice anywhere from 2 to 5 hours a day. I've played other instruments and studied theory for many years, so I'm able to try some advanced pieces. Chopin's Etude in C minor, op. 25 no. 12, is currently my biggest challenge. I'm lucky to have found the perfect teacher for me, also she is a wonderful pianist.

One question - does ANYONE here like Lang Lang? I'm starting to feel bad for him after reading some of the posts, I didn't expect all the hatred.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to spending time on this forum in the future.

For what it's worth - I saw him about 5 years ago in a concert and I liked him.

Thanks, it's worth a lot, I haven't read through every post on here of course, but that's the first nice thing I've read about him. I saw an interview with him and he wasn't pretending to be anything he's not, he mentioned his education stressed technique over musical understanding. He sounds fine to me.

Ok, I am also in that "what could have been" frame of mind had I kept up with playing - or at least that's my dad's opinion. For me, I never would have made it as a musician early on. I was too immature and distracted, and it didn't help that we moved all over the place being a military family.

When I was 6 (decades ago), I just loved going to my friends houses who had pianos. It was an obsession. My parents realized this and I started lessons from an old lady who was actually famous. She was on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson back in the late 60s. She really made me feel special and enthusiastic. But hey, I was 6, so a chord here and a chord there was about it. I loved learning - credit the teacher for that.

I took lessons from her until we moved again, and the next teacher was horrible. Just sucked the enthusiasm right out of me with pieces I had no interest in. I remember two years in with her the day I showed up to lessons and had not practiced all week. She said that maybe we needed to discuss with my parents if I should continue. So that was that, and friends and football took over. Then jobs, then dating, then a wife, then a kid, and another kid, and another kid, and still, same job (I am lucky).

Occasionally I would dabble on the piano during those years, playing on the upright in the college dorm, or at the in-laws house during weekend visits, and we are talking about basic C G F progressions. No pieces learned at all. And definitely no sheet music. I always looked at a piano during those decades like it talked to me saying "when are you coming back? You belong with us......"

One day, we were watching an Episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond", the one where Ray takes up lessons again after his 6 year old daughter quit, and Ray wanted her to keep playing. She asked "did you quit Daddy?" and of course, what kind of example would he be if he said yes. So he started playing again, and I had the exact revelation with my daughter, who was also 6. We had the old upright from the inlaws in our basement (they gave it to us when they moved to be near us), and I wanted to start up again to teach her and my boys also. So I pulled out the old books from childhood (that I called my mom and asked her to mail me, still in my childhood piano bench at their house) and started refreshing my memory, then devised a teaching plan for them.

Large charts of notes and scales, etc. It was very cute, but Daddy cannot teach his own children when they keep wanting to go and play.

About this time I hopped on You-Tube (my first You-Tube experience), looking around and being amazed as what I saw with these 5, 6, 7 year olds playing incredibly complex songs. I guess it sparked me to get moving, and I stumbled onto Chopin. Of course I had heard of him, but had no idea that many of the masterpieces I heard over the years were his pieces. I would spend hours watching these videos of pianists, and recalling the songs I liked that I had heard over the years. (See, as a 6 year old, you have no frame of musical reference regarding classical music, but as an adult, you have gained an appreciation).

Well, the kids lost interest, but I took off becoming obsessed with learning these songs, almost feeling like I was on a mission to make up for lost time. As I listened to more and more Chopin, being just amazed at his diversity, I ended up picking and learning about 10 pieces, that gave me a wide variety of technical challenges that I knew I would have to develop in order to be "on my way". For example, 3 months in, I took my first look at "fantasie impromptu", and while reading the music and memorizing the patterns was no problem, technically I said to myself that this will take me two years to be able to play.

It's been almost two years now (I'd say fantasie is just about there, full tempo and clean technique), I bought a grand (since the old upright (80 years old) was killing me with its dead action and horrible pedals), and I have been pretty obsessed with technical development since (not to worry, I practice for musicality also). I love it when I hit a new technical threshold, but I also see how far I need to go.

I only get to put in about 8-10 hours per week, (my wife will say its more like 20 hours). But I feel that I always had the talent, and now I have the desire. Old age? I am restarting at 42, and I see people like Horowitz who played up to 86, so I feel there is time to take it as far as I want. No fame, no glory, and no pressure. I have a career, and it's not making music.

People who hear me play are very complimentary and my wife brags and I hate that because I know I'm in the infancy stages and will need many years of continued development. Then I think, "ok great, I'll be 50 when I can really play, and who wants to hear an old man play?". Well, I have to work on that mindset that this is for personal challenge and enjoyment, not for entering competitions and putting on concerts. Many of the masters are in their 50s and 60s, and do they lack audiences? It keeps me motiviated. Again, I feel that I owe this to myself to leave the earth one day knowing that I may play beautiful piano the day before I die, and that will leave memories for my family to always remember.

Hi everyone, I joined this forum a week ago and haven´t had a chance to appear here yet. Like many piano lovers, I started playing the piano when I was a child and quit when I started university... After graduating I felt like taking up playing the piano again and now I have regular music lessons and perform at my music school´s yearly recitals... last year I played Albéniz´s "Granada" and it was fantastic!!! Now I´m working on Debussy´s Claire de Lune which I am to perform in June this year. I also like playing Chopin, his etudes - op.10 N 9, op.25 N 2, and now I´m working on op.25 N 12. I love Grieg too, especially after visiting Norway, his house and one of the summer concerts which take place there every year... I´m happy I have come across this forum and hope to take part in interesting discussions about playing the piano!

HiI just got myself a piano today after a lifetime of waiting for one.I always loved the piano and it started when I was a baby , my sitter was a piano teacher. I used to be in awe of her teaching her students. The only thing was I did not have a piano.Eventually as a young teen, my parents got given a piano really cheaply but some of the keys did not work. I was so frustrated with it and practice did not get given as much time as I would have done on a working piano.I think my interest dwindled as I could not produce the sounds I heard in my ears and as I reached my later teens,other things took over.Now, here it is. I had lost the belief over the last few years that I would ever get one . Then recently became obssessed with it. I have a 10 month old and want him to have exposure to the music I heard as a baby (and a working piano). So, I did not buy the house I should have but bought the piano I always wanted.Now, I want to relearn and actually be able to play. I am not sure how to start. Here I am ................

Hi I discovered PW a few weeks ago when I decided I was SO into piano that I would upgrade from my upright to a grand. The Piano Forum was extremely helpful, and today I just bought a 1980 Yamaha C5. (Now I just have to sell my two-year-old Boston upright for the same price!) I took classical lessons as a kid for five years and played in auditions. Played very little since then, although I still had several pieces memorized from way back then (a child's brain is amazing! Meanwhile, I can't remember the piece I just memorized last month). I've been back playing for about a year, and I found an awesome teacher that is so inspiring that all I can do is hope for an empty moment in my day to run over to the piano. I just love it. This forum is wonderful . . .

I bought my first piano about two months ago, after a life-time of waiting for the opportunity (got a job and saved for about 6 months). I'm 21, going on 22, and I've been having all these thoughts that it's too late to pick up something like learning piano, but lurking on these forums made me realize it's never too late. So thanks for that

Since I just posted on a thread in the Pianist Corner, I'd better mind my manners and introduce myself. I have posted under Pianos, and Beginners, and I posted a few minutes ago in this forum because I saw an interesting topic pop up under "Recent Posts."

I grew up on classical music, beginning with Chopin, whose music I loved when I was 4. I've been taking lessons since August, having always wanted lessons. Gave my kids lessons; now it's my turn. I just finished John Thompson's first book, so you see I don't really belong in the august company of the Pianist Corner. And I am fascinated by brain studies--hence my excuse for wandering in here. I now salaam as I back out the door....

Well, my name's Oliver and I'm from New Zealand. I'm 18 years old and I've been playing piano for 9 years, on and off, with and without piano teachers.

I don't really consider myself a good pianist after playing 9 years but I still have the passion! In the past I've played mostly classical and jazz. Just recently been getting more into the more 'popular' stuff.

I practice as much as I can but time is a big issue for me at the moment. University work is really full on.

My name is Galen, and I'm from Pennsylvania. I'm 18 years old, and just started taking piano lessons in January. I haven't had the chance to play an instrument before this, but I've always wanted to, so I bought a Kawaii digital piano, and am finally doing it! Yay.

My favorite genres are blues/boogie-woogie, some jazz, and of course classical. I'm not a huge fan of popular at the moment, but that doesn't mean I won't enjoy it as I get better and maybe expand my listening and playing boundaries. =)

My name is Andrew, I'm 18 and I live in Melbourne, Australia. I've been studying piano since I was three (and a half) years old and will be sitting for the Licentiate in Music Australia (LMusA) Diploma this June.

Currently I'm studying for a Bachelor of Music with the ultimate aim of completing a PhD in musicology. I have a particular interest in 20th Century music (hence my username) and relatively unknown works (for example, this May I'm performing a beautiful piano sonata by Wagner in a recital!).

My other interests include science (particularly biology and chemistry) and history.

Hello, my name is FunkyLlama. Well, okay, so it actually isn't, but there we are.I've been playing the piano for 4 years, before which I played the keyboard (spits :P). My favourite composer is Rachmaninoff and my favourite piece is the Rach 3. Not that I can play it. ;_;

Hello, my name is Torin. I'm 15 years old, and I've been playing for...

That's an interesting question, actually. I took piano lessons for about two years when I was younger (5th/6th grade), but never really practiced, and quit as soon as I was allowed. After that I spent two or three years doing other things, coming back to the piano every few months or so; I learned Fur Elise (the whole version) through brute repetition, and played a couple of other easy pieces, but didn't work with any regularity.

A transforming moment occurred when I happened across the sheet music for Clair de Lune. I fell in love with the piece, and spent the next six months slogging through it, bar by bar. In the process, I learned an incredible amount about music and about the piano (at least compared to what I knew before). In the end, however, I was dissatisfied. I could play the notes, but I couldn't make them sound the way I wanted them to. That was when I decided to begin lessons again.

That was nine months ago. Since then, I've progressed and matured as a musician immeasurably, but I know my journey is far (far far far) from over.

Hello I am an older adult trying to learn Piano... I have a few questions about this site. Is there a place here where we can trade music scores ? how about finding a source of sheet music rare and out of print ? and finally, where to find a resting place for an Etude magazine collection ? thanks so much for your help with this James

Hi Andrew best wishes for your work in Piano and all other things. When you get a chance, try one of those big Stuart & Sons grand pianos and let us know what you think ! they sure look interesting... Jim

Hi Andrew best wishes for your work in Piano and all other things. When you get a chance, try one of those big Stuart & Sons grand pianos and let us know what you think ! they sure look interesting... Jim

Hello, My name is Jason, and Ive wanted to play the piano for about one year now.

Im a 20 year old film student currently going to ASU. I have a small background in guitar and singing and Im mainly a lyricist as far as musical writing is concerned. I also write comic book scripts and make blogs and podcasts about professional wrestling on my spare time.

It all started with Amanda Palmer, and I've since developed an itch to learn and master the instrument. I want to be a career musician if I can and her style is what I want to emulate as it as had the most resonance and appeal to me as a musician and fan.

While my background isnt as deep as I wish it was at 20 (and it bugs me everyday that Im absolutely behind), my passion is definitely there, and I look forward to my journey in the world of piano. I joined these forums to learn as much as I could and to join a community of people who were just as passionate as I am about it who could maybe teach a stressed out teen feeling like he's starting at too much of an old age like me a thing or two.

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Amanda Palmer has either inspired me to undertake the greatest journey in my life...or she's inspired me to buy a 350dollar dust collector. Which of these has yet to be determined.